No Cheltenham Festival for Flies this year

‘We’ll probably go to Fairyhouse and Punchestown – home soil and good ground’.

There will be no Cheltenham Festival for No Flies On Him despite Edward O’Grady taking plenty of positives from his second place behind Tullyhill at Punchestown on Sunday.

The JP McManus-owned five-year-old downed Grade One winner Jango Baie in his sole start in the pointing field and lit up Leopardstown at Christmas with a taking display on his rules debut.

That victory raised the possibility of a return to former glories for Killeens handler O’Grady, who is no stranger to success on the biggest stage of all.

No Flies On Him holds entries in both the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the Baring Bingham, but a trip to Prestbury Park will have to wait, with the promising youngster set to sit out proceedings in the Cotswolds this time around.

“He won’t go to Cheltenham,” said O’Grady. “He’s well and he came home and ate up and pulled out well this morning.

“Had he won then obviously I would have gone to Cheltenham and had no worries. But it might have been just a pretty big step (at Punchestown) and he might improve quite a bit from it.

“He’s a very gross horse and he blew quite a lot after his race and I think there is a nice bit of improvement in him.

“We’ll probably go to Fairyhouse and Punchestown – home soil and good ground. I’m sure he will have benefitted from the experience at Punchestown.”

No Flies On Him in action at Leopardstown at Christmas
No Flies On Him in action at Leopardstown at Christmas (Niall Carson/PA)

No Flies On Him ultimately finished nine lengths adrift of the impressive Willie Mullins-trained winner when upped to Listed level for just his second appearance under rules.

However, O’Grady believes there was plenty of encouragement to take from his charge’s performance – especially the way he ran on to claw back second after making a mistake at the last.

He continued: “There were a number of positives and obviously you are always disappointed when you get beat, but maybe at this stage we were over estimating things and the winner put up a Grade One performance.

“My horse is only five and this was only his second start. He had never been off the bridle before in his life, so it was quite a shock to his system and something he handled quite well on reflection.

“He really wasn’t at home on the gluey ground and he did find that rather difficult – the day he ran at Leopardstown it was good ground.

“What we really liked about him was having made the mistake at the last hurdle, he ran on again.

“So there were a lot of positives to take from the run and he certainly hasn’t gone down in our estimations, but just maybe at this stage of his career it was maybe too big an ask under the circumstances.”

A step up in trip is now under consideration for connections who are confident they still have a horse with high-class potential in their care having conceded both age and experience to Tullyhill.

“We would have no worries about stepping him up in trip and whether he does that next time or the time after I don’t know, but we would have no worries doing so,” added O’Grady.

“It’s certainly under consideration and something I will discuss with JP, Frank (Berry, racing manager) and the jockey.

“The other horse (Tullyhill) was one of the top bumper horses last year and has the experience as well. He has a year on No Flies On Him and my horse is very, very green and Derek O’Connor is such a good jockey that when he ran in his point-to-point, he didn’t even know he had a race.

“When he ran at Leopardstown he barely came off the bridle, so there is tremendous room for improvement in racing technique and there’s not a lot we can do about that at home – it’s just something that will come from experience.”

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